Turkey's ruling AKP party works to scrap special courts

Turkey's ruling AK Party plans to abolish widely criticized special courts used in the trials of alleged coup plotters, a parliament official told Reuters on Wednesday, making the future of the politically sensitive cases uncertain, Hurriyet cites Reuters as saying.
 
A series of trials investigating hundreds of people accused of links to coup plots or Kurdish militants would be affected by the reform, which one newspaper report said could be put before parliament before it go into recess on Sunday.
 
Critics of the courts say the trials, one of which is a conspiracy case involving hundreds of military officers, have spiralled out of control and been used to stifle dissent. Many defendants have spent years in custody with no verdict in sight.
 
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan himself has cast doubt on the handling of the cases, suggesting court powers could be curbed, but such a reform was not expected so quickly. 
 
The Hürriyet daily said Erdoğan had ordered the abolition of the courts be inserted into a reform package which his party aims to push through parliament before the recess.